Running After What? Hearing God Through Hebrews 12
Heb 12:14-17 Mar 18, 2007 (4th week of Lent)
Intro:
I am not a morning person. In fact, I describe myself as an “anti-morning” person. Ask any of the other members of the team that went to Bolivia with me in January, they’ll tell you: “Steve – not so great in the morning… Get a cup of coffee into him, eventually he gets going… but until then…”
Sometimes that can cause problems, like in high school when I had to catch a yellow school bus at 7:15am. Every morning, I hit the snooze button one time too many, got ready as fast as possible, and ran to the bus stop. If I missed that bus, there weren’t really any alternatives, so I ran for that bus. I chased that bus. I pursued that bus… and I did it will all my strength like the day depended on it – because it did. If I missed the bus, the day was all messed up before it even began.
Sometimes I feel like that is a bit of a metaphor for life. Wake up, and I’m already behind. Run after this, run after the next thing, run to the next place, run to work run to eat run to get home. Some days, we start running the minute our feet hit the ground and don’t stop running until we collapse into bed at night.
Sometimes, I wonder what all this running is really about. What am I running after? Am I chasing in circles? Am I actually getting anywhere, or just ending up back where I started? Am I pursuing something that is going to last for eternity, something that brings life to others, something that brings joy to my Lord?
You might think that as a pastor I’d have a quick and easy answer to that question, but to be honest I really don’t. I do have a purpose for my life, but often I live with a quiet unsettled heart because too many of my activities do not line up with that purpose. Or maybe my activities do, but I don’t feel like I’m making progress. I’ve been running after all kinds of things but not feeling like I’m really getting anywhere.
How about you? When you take time to actually stop running and reflect – which many of us don’t do simply because questions like these are too uncomfortable – do you feel that all this running is really getting you where you want to go?
I’m not just talking about a busy schedule. Lots of days, my schedule is not that busy. I’m talking about something quite a bit bigger: where I am putting my effort? What am I really, honestly, striving after? For some of us, that comes out in busyness – striving for meaning, to feel important, to jam as much into life as possible, to “get ahead” (whatever that means). For others it comes out opposite – we want to be comfortable, to be entertained, to have something that fills our time and keeps our brains tuned in to something trivial so that we don’t have to think about anything life changing – especially our pain. Sometimes that is running away.
Heb 12:14-17 (NLT):
I have some good news. God’s Word speaks directly to this question, although I warn you in advance it is not an easy word. In Hebrews 12, we have very clear direction about what it is that is really worth running after:
“14 Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. 15 Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, for wherever it springs up, many are corrupted. 16 Make sure that no one is immoral or godless like Esau, who traded his birthright as the firstborn son for a single meal. 17 You know that afterward, when he wanted his father’s blessing, he was rejected. It was too late for repentance, even though he begged with bitter tears.”
“Run After”
The passage begins with the answer to our “running” problem, by showing us what is really worth running after. The word that starts the passage is translated differently in various Bibles: the old version of the NLT which I’m using here says “work at”, which is much better than the new edition of the NLT which just says “try”. The NIV is good, “make every effort”. The NRSV and NASB says, “pursue”, which is possibly the best. Whenever a word is translated in so many different ways, I do a little digging for an actual definition of the original word, and here it is: “zealously to follow… to run after… earnestly to pursue” (TDNT 2:230).
So to our problem, of knowing what to “run after”, to “follow zealously”, to “pursue earnestly”, Scripture gives us an answer: “Pursue living in peace with everyone, and pursue living a holy life.” What is worth pursuing with all of our zealousness and earnestness is simply this: relationships of peace – with people, and with God.
“Pursue living in peace with everyone”
The passage starts with people, so let’s start there. “Pursue living in peace with everyone”. Remember a moment ago when I said it wasn’t an easy Scripture? Work at, run after, zealously live at peace with who? Everyone. Yes, that’s right, everyone.
Live at peace with that person at school who drives you crazy. Live at peace with that person at work who doesn’t do their share, and is constantly trying to take advantage of you. Live at peace with that member of your extended family that makes you cringe when you think about Thanksgiving dinner. Perhaps the closest, and hardest work of all, live at peace with the members of your immediate family – your spouse, your parents, your kids.
Here is something worth running after. Now, before getting into that a little more, let’s define peace: it is NOT an absence of conflict. That is usually what we think of as peace – “well, no one is yelling, everyone is behaving themselves, there is no outward conflict, so we must be at peace.” Real peace is something deeper, far deeper – it is harmonious relationships. Not always agreeing. Not always an absence of conflict. But deeper, much deeper – harmonious relationships. Have you ever had a good argument with someone you love? One where you both believed deeply in one another, had a deep love for one another, and got into a great disagreement? I’m talking about the kind of harmonious relationship where arguments or disagreements like those just build the relationship deeper, the friendship stronger. That depth of relationship is what peace looks like.
And that is worth running after. Can you imagine how much pettiness would not exist in our world if we ran after relationships like that? In the workplace, if we put relationships and people ahead of petty power struggles, silly games, gossipy put downs, ridiculous pretension, what would it look like? It just might be a peaceful place.
I believe that peace is contagious, and all it takes is one Christian running after peace to change an entire group of people. This courageous individual doesn’t let things simmer, doesn’t participate in gossip or pretension even by listening, doesn’t retreat to their own corner when “that issue” threatens to appear, but rather this person works at it, pursues it, makes every effort to develop relationships that become harmonious. Wouldn’t you like to be a part of that kind of transformation? Christians of peace can make it happen.
“Pursue living a holy life”
This passage of Scripture had a huge influence on me at a formative point in my life, because of what it says next: “work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.” I read a book early in my adult Christian life, called “The Pursuit of Holiness” by Jerry Bridges, and his chapter on Heb 12:14 is one I have never forgotten. The point he made, very strongly I might add, is this: we have to work at holiness. And to keep the negative phrasing of the passage, if we do not “work at” holiness then we “will not see the Lord.”
That sounds a little different, no? It is all about grace, all about what God does, and has nothing to do with what I do, isn’t it? What is this verse about – is it saying we must earn our salvation, we must be good enough to get to heaven?
No, it is not saying that. I don’t believe the passage is teaching that we have to earn our way into heaven. But it is saying we have to work at holiness, we have to strive for holiness, we have to run after holiness. I think it can be easy for us to become “grace abusers”. We believe God will forgive us, so why not sin? Why bother trying not to sin if God is just going to forgive us when we do?
One of my most frustrating moments in ministry was a conversation with a person I cared deeply for, about this very thing. This person said, “Well, you have always taught me that God loves me unconditionally. You have always taught me that God will forgive me if I ask for forgiveness. So then I’m going to go live my life exactly how I want to, cause God will always take me back. I’m going to do as many sins as I feel like, cause God will always forgive.” Wow was I frustrated!! My spirit almost jumped out of my skin! That is such an incredibly wrong conclusion, and this person has done exactly that. And has destroyed his life, in ways that would make you weep if I were to share the specifics.
This passage gives us a strong warning against that kind of thinking. “Work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.” Maybe this isn’t talking about salvation, maybe it is a little simpler than that. If you don’t work at living a holy life, you won’t see the hand of God on your life right now. You won’t see the incredibly great things He desires for you today, and tomorrow, and the next day. You won’t see God’s guidance, God’s comfort, God’s peace and God’s kindness in your life today.
And as a result, you’ll spend your life running after empty things.
A couple of weeks ago I diagramed what I believe is a prevalent, but false, view of holiness. We think of it as “bottom up”: God is awesome and holy, and “up there.” We are wretched sinners, “down here”. And we take passages like Heb 12:14 and think they mean we have to work really hard to get from the bottom up to the top.
But that is false. That is salvation by works, and we reject that. Instead, the truth is this: when God forgives us, He picks us up from the “bottom” – the slime and muck and filth – and makes us holy like Jesus is holy. He places us at the top, where He is.
Here is the work, the effort, the pursuit: to stay at the top. To live at the top. To refuse to return to the garbage. To reject the filth. To throw out the lie that says “we are all just a bunch of sinners… so of course we are going to sin.”
“Work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.”
Applied in Two Ways:
The author of Hebrews applies this “pursuing” peaceful, right relationships in two ways. “Look out for” each other to receive grace, the antidote to bitterness, and look out for each other so that we don’t live immoral or godless lives.
Here are two great things to run after: running after each other so that we don’t get bitter, and miss the grace of God, and running after each other so that we don’t mess up our whole lives like Esau did.
There is a great, quick little phrase there about bitterness: “whenever it springs up, many are corrupted.” Bitterness, by its very nature, is self-focused. Most often we have been hurt, but instead of pursuing peace we allow this little seed to sink deep into our hearts. It sits there for awhile, and starts to grow. We try to keep it in the dark, but once we let it start to grow it quickly takes on a life of its own, and listen to this: it corrupts many. It poisons others. Now, this bitterness is not just a personal issue, it is a community issue. One person’s bitterness poisons “many”.
That is why it is so worth running after each other – in relationships that are harmonious – so that we don’t see bitterness growing that poisons all those around. So we don’t let one another believe the worst, nurture those thoughts, and then act on them and share them and spread the poison around.
The second application point is very similar: look after each other’s morality, so that we don’t do something really stupid and trade our very lives away because we want something immediately. That is the story of Esau, and perhaps for some of you that is your story today. Maybe there is something you want, and you want it now, and you are about to do something (or maybe you have already done something) really foolish. Maybe it is a sexual relationship that is wrong, that you know is wrong, but you feel like you want it and are in danger. I’m looking out for you by saying this: don’t do it – it will destroy you. Look at Esau, study his story. Don’t do it, it will destroy you. And if any of you know a brother or sister in Christ that is in that kind of situation, do anything in your power to stop it. That is living at peace with one another, that is running after it, making every effort, pursuing peace.
The author gives us a better way than allowing bitterness or allowing someone else to act on impulse: “Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God.”
Back to Grace
And that is where I want to end. Grace. Interesting thing to include in a passage on our effort! Grace – God’s grace to us. Grace to empower us to live at peace with one another and with God. Grace to bring us into a relationship with God in the first place. Grace to send the Holy Spirit. Grace to reach out to us. Grace to forgive us when we repent. Grace to allow us to see God. Grace to join us down in the muck and filth and grime of sin and grace to refuse to allow us to stay there another moment. Grace to put us in communities like this church where we will look out for one another, where we will not allow one another to do some impulsive thing that will destroy us, where we will joyfully choose to put relationships of love ahead of every other consideration. Grace that cleanses. Grace that empowers. Grace that forgives.
As we close, I invite you to receive God’s grace. I am going to pray it onto each of us, and ask you this: will you receive? Will you let it in? Will you open your arms – literally, as a physical expression of your heart, and will you receive God’s grace? It will change you, it will transform you, and it will empower you and inspire you to run after the things that are worth running after.
